The Tempests of Shakespeare and Rabelais.

This Series:

• Gutenberg, proto-Hack Writers and Shakespeare.
• Francois Rabelais and Shakespeare
• The Tempests of Shakespeare and Rabelais.
• Francois Rabelais was Born About this Date in 1483.

 

Last week we took Henry Anders[1] as our guide into the influence of Rabelais upon the works of Shakespeare. His account of the books that our playwright likely read based upon the texts of his works could not exclude French authors. Montaigne, Rabelais and Ronsard were allotted nine pages. Rabelais himself two. The rest of French literature none.

Of the three, Ronsard alone was a pervasive influence. In particular, in the poems. Shakespeare’s poems  also shared the weakness of his times that extended even to the poet Milton. All were smitten with Du Bartas.

The greatest French influences over Shakespeare, by far, however, were the French translators. There are numerous indications that he was particularly fond of Pierre Boaistuau’s translations from the novellas of Matteo Bandello and Francois Belleforest’s from a wider range of literatures. Shakespeare, along with the rest of the young noble French readers of the day, clearly was an avid reader of their sensational Histoires Tragiques. I will leave Amyot’s French translation of the Live’s of Petrarch to better time.

Still, the influence of Rabelais may be greater than is generally credited. The eccentric critic William Maginn’s exasperation with the public debate over Shakespeare’s languages reveals — among a good many other things — some rather astonishing correspondences between The Tempest and the fourth book of Gargantua and Pantegruel.

About Shakespeare reading Rabelais in the original he asserts:

That Shakespeare had read Rabelais, I have no doubt; and if he read him at all, it must have been in French.  Malone, who supposes such a supposition to be heresy, positively asserts that there was a translation of Rabelais in Shakespeare's time.  It would be a rare treasure to a bibliographer if a copy were found.[2]

With this introduction, he cites a number of passages in shipwreck portion of The Tempest that will surely interest a student of the subject. I provide the two most astonishing  alongside the Rabelaisian passages in the classic translation by Peter Motteux. The original French text for each passage will appear in a footnote.

First the famous line “Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.”

…The king's son, Ferdinand, With hair upstarting (then like reeds, not hair) Was the first man that leaped; cried, 'Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.'

[So Friar John :]   Grumble, Devils, fart, belch, shite a T--d… I think all the Legions of Devils hold here their Provincial Chapter, or are Polling, Canvasing and Wrangling for the Election of a new Rector.[3]   [And the previous page :]   In truth here is a sad Lightning and Thundering; I think that all the Devils are got loose, 'tis Holy-day with 'em, or else Madam Proserpine is in Child's labour, all the Devils dance a Morrice.[4]

It is difficult to dismiss this as coincidence as both belong to a wider and similar text about a fierce tempest. Among the similarities is one again so striking that it seems impossible it is a coincidence. Ariel reports to Prospero his impish activities around the masts of the reeling vessel.

I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement. Sometimes, I'd divide, And burn in many places; on the topmast, The yards, and the boltsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join; Jove's lightnings, the precursors O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary And sight-outrunning were not. The fire, and cracks Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune Seemed to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread trident shake Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad, and played Some tricks of desperation.

The Thunder grumbled so horridly, that you would have thought Heaven had been tumbling about our Ears; at the same time it Lightened, Rained, Hail'd ; the Sky lost its transparent hue, grew dusky, thick and gloomy, so that we had no other Light than that of the Flashes of Lightning and rending of the Clouds: the Hurricans, Flaws, and sudden Whirlwinds began to make a Flame about us by the Lightnings, Fiery Vapours, and other Aerial Ejaculations. Oh! how our Looks were full of Amazement and Trouble, while the sawcy Winds did rudely lift up above us the Mountainous Waves of the Main.[5]

Added to the reader’s surprise, both passages are expressly meant to describe the same phenomenon: St. Elmo’s Dance. During fierce storms sailors often saw sparkling lights dance around their masts. This effect, we have come to know, is caused by the air becoming highly ionized from lightning strikes.

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[1] Anders, Henry. Shakespeare’s Books (1904), 56-7.

[2] The Shakespeare Papers of the Late William Maginn (1856). 334.

[3] Motteux, Peter. Urquhart, Thomas. Gargantua and Pantagruel, III. 111. “Je croy que touts les millions de diables tiennent icy leur chapitre provincial, ou briguent pour election de nouveau recteur."

[4] Ibid., III. 111. "Vrayment voicy bien esclaire, et bien tonne. Je croy que touts les diables sont deschainez aujourd'huy, ou que Proserpine est en travail d'enfant. Tous les diables dancent aux sonnettes."

[5] Ibid. 106 “ Le ciel tonner du hault, fouldroyer, esclairer, pluvoir, gresler, l'aer perdre sa transparence, devenir opaque, tenebreux, et obscurci, si que aultre lumidre ne nous apparoissoit que les fouldres, esclaires, et infractions des flambantes nuees: les categides, thielles, lelapes, et presteres enflamber tout autour de nous par les psoloentes, urges, elicies, et aultres ejaculations etberees— nos aspects touts estre dissipez, et perturbez, les horrifiques Typhons surprendre les monteuses vagues du courant, &c. "

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• More on Thomas North as Shakespeare and author of Arden of Feversham. June 14, 2021. “This is also the reason why the title pages included the address of the shop that was selling the book.”
• A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years.  Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
• Gutenberg, proto-Hack Writers and Shakespeare. May 26, 2020. “A less well known effect of the Reformation was that many young Catholic men who had taken religious orders in order to receive an education began to lead lives at large from monastic discipline.  Like Erasmus and Rabelais they took up the pen.”
• Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not.  No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
• Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.